DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 276 272 FL 016 238

AUTHOR Lowenberg, Peter
TITLE Malay in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore: Three
Faces of a National Language.
PUB DATE 17 Jul 85
NOTE 48p.; In: What Are National Languages Good For?
Florian Coulmas, Ed.; see FL 016 231.
PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) -- Speeches/Conference
Papers (150)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Colonialism; Comparative Analysis; Developing
Nations; Diachronic Linguistics; Ethnicity; Foreign
Countries; *Geographic Distribution; *Indonesian;
*Language Role; *Malay; Nationalism; *Official
Languages; Political Influences; Public Policy;
Sociolinguistics; Uncommonly Taught Languages
IDENTIFIERS Indonesia; Malaysia; Singapore
ABSTRACT
Malay's long use as the dominant linga franca
throughout modern Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore is partly
responsible for its current status as the national language of all
three countries. However, political and economic developments during
and since the colonial era have created sociolinguistic contexts,
motives, and results of the language's status that are very different
for each country. In Indonesia, the policies of the Indonesian
nationalists, Dutch, and Japanese converged to promote Bahasa
Indonesia successfully as an ethnically neutral symbol of identity
and integration. In Malaysia, the selection and promotion of Bahasa
Malaysia as the national language was motivated partly by ethnic
communalism rather than national unity, but it was also enhanced by
British and Japanese policy. In Singapore, Malay serves to express
international integration and unity with her two closest neighbors
and is a factor in the balance of ethnic sentiments. The status and
domains of Malay in the three countries are constantly changing and
evolving, reflecting the complexities of the national language
question in this area. A five-page reference list concludes the
document. (MSE)

***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
 Nalay in Indonesia. Malaysia. and Singapore:
Three Faces of a National Language

Peter Lowenberg

short title: Nalav as a National Language

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

MATE AL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Office of Educational Research and improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
XThis document has been reproduced as
acz received from the person or organfization
originating it.
0 Minor changes have been made to improve
reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points ol view or opinionsstated in thisctocu-
.9 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." meet do not necessarily represent official
OERI position or policy.
0
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
 MALAY IN INDCOESIA, MALAYSIA, AND SINGAPORE:
THREE FACES OF A NATIONAL LANGUAMS

Introduction

Contemporary Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore provide

excellent examples of the diverse rationales for the adoptioel at
a national language and for the consequences and implications eC
selecting a particular language for this role. For unlike after
contexts in which national language policies have been compared,
these countries ifford a rare opportunity to analyze several
sociolinguistic variables operating on a common national
language, Malay, in a contiguous geographic area that has been
influenced since prehistory by similar linguistic and
nonlinguistic developments.
For the half millenium prior to the colonial era, this
region shared Malay as a lingua franca for basically identical
functions associated with maritime trade. Howevere.significant
differences in the colonial and post-colonial experiences of
these countries have caused substantial divergence in their
respective motives for and the sociolinguistic impact of their
selection of Malay as a national language. In this survey of the
national language question in these countries, I will review the
historical role of the Malay language in the area, discuss the
diverse reasons why Malay was selected as the sole national

language in these countries, and examine the results of this

solution to the national language question in all three
nations.

Pre-colonial Era
The region comprising present-day Indonesia, Malaysia,
and

3
 2
Singapore has always been unified in terms of its indigenous
languages, most of which share phonological, morphosyntactic, and
lexical features marking them as members of the
Western
Indonesian sub-branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family
(Dyen 1971; Voegelin and Voegelin 1964).

These linguistic bonds are further consolidated by the use

of one of these languages, Malay, since prehistory as the primary

lingua franca of the region. As Alisjahbana observes (1976:32),

because the extensive area of Indonesia and Malaysia is

fragmented into hundreds of geographical: cultural, and
most important, linguistic units, there has been from
time immemorial a need for a single common language
which could be understood not only by the natives of
the archipelago but also by the constaht waves of
foreigners attracted by celebrated riches.

Malay's assumption of this role has resulted from its long use as
a mother tongue on both the Sumatran and Malay sides of the
straits of Malacca, which have continually been the keystone to
maritime commerce in Southeast Asia. The Malay inhabitants of
this area have always been active traders and navigators,
spreading their language with them at all their ports of call
(Gonda 1973). Concurrently, "traders, migrants, and even pirates

who plied up and down the Straits of Malacca could not escape
contact with Malay-speaking people" (hsmah 1982 :202-203), whose
language they subsequently learned and than used in their
interethnic contacts with one another.

The first institutionalized spread of Malay occurred during

the Srivijaya Empire (seventh through fourteenth centuries A.D.),
which adopted Malay as its official language. From its capital at

4
 3
contemporary Palembang in southern Sumatra and a secondary base
at Kedah on the Malay Peninsula, Srivijaya eventually conquered
all of Sumatra, West and Central Java, and the Malay Peninsula,
establishing colonies along all seacoasts and major rivers within
its domain. It maintained diplomatic relations with both /ndia
and China and effectively controlled both the Straits of Malacca

and the Straits of Sunda (between Sumatra and Java) for over five
centuries (Cady 1964; Harrison 1967; Williams 1976). The
extensive area over which Malay had official status during the
Srivijaya era is reflected by the widespread locations of stone
monuments with Malay inscriptions in Devanagari script later
found on Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula (Alisjahbana
1976; Asmah 1982). In addition to its use within the actual
political domains of Srivi4arl, Gonda (1973:87) surmises that the
emplav "in all Probability, likewise furthered the spread of
Malay over adjacent countries which felt its influence."
The decline from power of Srivijaya by no means lessened the
role of Malay. For with the subsequent expansion of the Islamic
kingdom of Malacca during the fifteenth century, tha Malay spoken

by sailors from the smaller islands in and around the Straits of

Malacca - - a variety slightly different from that used in

Srivijaya -- continued the tradition of Malay as a

lingua franca in the Ardhipelago (ims 1978; Williams 1976).
Furthermore, Malay became the language of proselytization by
MUslim missionaries who followed the trade routes and brought the
language into greater contact with present-day Indonesia (Gonda
1973).

5
 5

By the time the first Europeans arrived, Malay was

well-established as the only lingua franca in the Archipelago
(Teeuw 1967). Pigafetta, who accompanied Magellan on his first
circumnavigation of the world, compiled the first
Portuguese-Malay glossary in 1521 while harbored at Tidom one
of the far eastern Indonesian islands, which is indicative of
just how far Malay had spread. Soon afterward, St. Francis Xavier
is quoted as having referred to Malay as "the language that
everyone understands! and in 1614, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a
Dutch navigator, observed that "Haley was not merely known but
was also considered the most prestigious of the languages of the
Orient he who did not understand it was in somewhat the same
position as Dutchmen of the poriod who did not understand French"
(Alisjahbana 1976:33-34).

ColonAal Indonesi,

With the advent of the colonial era, differences between the

objectives and policies of the British in Malaya and those of the

Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies became reflected in greatly
divergent statuJ and functions of Malay in theme col .es. The
Dutch colonization of present-day Indonesia (1600-1942) was
extremely conducive to the expanded use of Malay. Unlike the
British, discussed below, the Dutch strove for monopolistic
control in Indonesia and carefully guarded against foreign
intrusions on their largely plantation economy. In particular,

6
 6
they severely restricted immigration of other Asians, resulting
in a population which was almost entirely indigenous to the
islands and which had long shared Malay as a link language.
Although Dutch was initially the only official colonial
language, the Dutch themselves found Malay extremely useful as an
auxiliary language for local administration and for communication
with the linguistically diverse peoples they sought to govern.
Therefore, in 1865, Maley was adopted as the second official
language by the Dutch colonial government, who used it as an
auxiliary language for local administration, commerce, and

communication (Hoffman 1973).

Alisjahbana (1974) posits that ease of communication vas not

the only motivation of the Dutch for elevating Malay to official
status, as demonstrated by their use of Malay as the primary
metlium of instruction for non-Europeans in the colonial school
system. The Dutch did provide limited Dutch-language primary,
secondary, and ultimately university instruction for the children
of the Eurasian and Indonesian lites, but their general policy
was to restrict the number of Indonesians who were proficient in
Dutch, since Indonesians who completed their secondary and higher

education in Dutch often competed with the Europeans for higher

positions in government and commerce and for other privileges.
Therefore, the Dutch established only 250 "Dutch Native" primary
and secondary schools, with Dutch as the medium of instruction,
for the Indonesian elites and a small group of intellectually
promising non-elites (Alisjahbana 1976:114). The vast majority

7
 7
of Indonesians could attend only "Tweede Klasse" (Sicond Class)
schools, in which the language of instruction was Malay (Kababan

1979:282; Central Bureau of Statistics 1940).

Actually, in pursuing this language policy, the Dutch
contributed greatly to the modernization and standardization of
Malay in Indonesia. Dutch administrators and scholars developed
new registers for Malay in the many domains in which it was used;
created a standardized Latin-alphabet spelling system for Malay,
along with an extensive wordlist implementing this system;
established a Malay-language publWang house to provide reading
material on popular topics for Indonesians who had learned to
read Malay in the schools; and supported a native journalistic
press in Malay from the beginning of the current century
(Alisjahbana 1976; Central Eureau of Statistics 1940; Nababan
1979).

However, the status of Malay was most greatly enhanced

during the Dutch period through its role as a language of
nationalirm opposed to the colonial regime. Ironically, it was
the Dutch language which equipped Malay for this function.
Anderson (1966) observes that among the limited numbers of non-
Europeans who received a Dutch-medium education, there developed
a small group of intellectuals "without a real function within
the structures of the colonial system," for whom proficiency in
Dutch "opened the way to a critical conception of society as a
whole, and a possible vision of a society after the disappearance
of the colonial regime." Dutch "provided the necessary means of
 communication between the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial
critiques of West European and, later, Russian Marxism and the
potential revolutionary elite in Indonssia." From Dutch
political tracts, "a socialist-communist vocabulary became the
common property of the entire nationalist elite of those years"
(Anderson 1966:101-102).

In seeking a single language through which to mobilize the

Indonesian masses by means of these revolutionary ideas, the
nationalists found Dutch unsatisfactory since so few people
understood it. They likewise rejected Javanese, the most highly
developed indigenous language, since it was associated.with the
largest and most powerful ethnic group and its use could
therefore lead to dissension and mistrust from the non-Javanese.
Moreover, as a reflection of the highlY
stratified Javanese
social structure, most statements in the Javanese
language
require choices from a complicated hierarchy of
morphosyntactic
and lexical constructions, depending on the relative
status of
the interlocutors (Geertz 1960); Javanese vas thus not at all
'suited for the expression of notions of equality and democracy
central to revolutionary rhetoric.

In contrast to Dutch and Javanese, the nationalists found in

Malay an indigenous language already widely used throughout the
archipelago and ethnically neutral, in not being the first
language of any prominent ethnic group. Moreover, Anderson
(1966:104) has observed that as the primary trade language of the
East Indies,

9
 9

it was a language simple and flexible enough to be

rapidly developed into a modern political language...
This was all the more possible because Malay as an
'inter-ethnie language, or lingua franca, had ipso
facto an almost statusless character, like Esperanto,
and was tied to no particular regional
structure. social
It had thus a free, almost 'democratic'
character from thc outset
Thus, in the early decades of this century, the nationalists
began actively promoting Malay as the best
candidate for an
Indonesian language, culminating in its adoption in October,
1928, at the second All-Indonesia Youth Congress in Surakarta,
Central Java, as Dahasa Indonesia, "the Indonesian Language"
(Alisjahbana 1976:39). In the 1930's, i genre of anti-colonial
nationalist writing in Malay began to develop, spearhaided by a
group of young Dutch-educated writers from Central and
Northern
Sumatra. Their variety of Malay, which was very similar to
varieties of Malay spoken on the west coast of the Malay
Peninsula, became'the standard literary language for Indonesia
and is still considered the standard model for
education and
formal occasions (Stevens 1973).

The Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945) further

augmented the domains, functions, and status of Bahasa
Indonesia. The Japanese abolished Dutch as the principal
language of power of the Indies, hoping eventually to replace it
with Japanese, which was taught as a compulsory subject in all
the schools. However, the urgent wartime need to communicate
quickly and clearly with the Indonesian people forced the
Japanese to give Bahasa Indonesia official status in 1942 (Reid

10
 10
1980) and to use it as the primary language of the
islands. In
their efforts to mobilize the Indonesians for the
war effort, the
Japanese went out to the most remote villiages, introducing
Bahasa Indonesia in regions where it had never been used
before
(Alisjahbana 1976).

Furthermore, from early in their occupation, the Japanese

entertained the possibility of granting independence
within their
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere to
an Indonesian nation
administered from Java. Later, as Japanese defeats began to
augment, an independent Indonesia figured into their strategy
of an insular defense perimeter around Japan
(Elsbree 1953).
In pursuit of'these objectives of immediate
communication
and preparation of a future ally, the Japanese contributed
greatly to the further cultivation and elaboration of
Bahasa
Indonesia. They supported increases in the number and
circulation of newspapers in Bahasa Indonesia, and provided
public radio stands at parks, schools, and larger street
intersections for Indonesians to hear lectures and
speeches
delivered in Bahasa Indonesia in support of the Japaneie
war
effort (Elsbree 1953). In addition, the Japanese established
Bahasa Indonesia as the primary language of
government and law;
science, technology, and industry; and of elementary
through
university education (Alisjahbana 1976).
This increased use and importance of Bahasa Indonesia
required that it be standardized throughout the archipelago
and
that its lexicon be enlarged to function in
new domains. To

11
 11

coordinate this linguistic retooling, the Japanese, beginning in

1942, established a series of language planning commissions with
both Japanese and Indonesian members, whose task was to write a
normative grammar, to standardize the existing vocabulary of
daily usage, and to develop new terminology. By the *end of the

Japanese occupation, 7,000 new terms had been adopted into the
Indonesian language (Alisjahbana 1976; Reid 1980).
Concurrently, a small class of urban Indonesians -- who
during the Dutch colonial era had been treated as a privileged
indigenous aristocracy, been educated in the Dutch-language
schools, and subsequently used Dutch as their first language--
were suddenly forbidden by the Japanese from speaking Dutch and,
therefore had to adopt Bahasa Indonesia as their primary
language. This class, though not actively involved in the
nationaliat movement, had traditional status among the Indonesian
population; their use of Bahasa Indonesia further expanded the
domains of its USG and added significantly to its prestige
(Stevens 1973).

As a result of these myriad factors during the 'Dutch

colonial period and the Japanese occupation, by the time the
Japanese withdrew in defeat from Indonesia in August, 1945, the
Malay language had undergone dramatic modernization and
standardization, with sufficiently developed registers for
government, law, education, science, and technology to function
as the national language for a new nation. With virtually no
opposition and no serious competition from any other language,

12
sew SO amegOismeiv, ears iillassis ow mama as Me aft
Miss. Wee. IIMP MOW W tabaaate
01111111111111.1 WIC

eilliganajOisla
OOP ilierrow, anal imam wiligh ~se la MG.
Sam Solimisso maim SW MUM all aft onsets&
111 ell WWI Si ad las stepres
Oft ale ainimas allmassamesse paw weese et
41111.14111110 elimmullb MS S OM Oar missal Oarlag mo
Via ilmilipme at iii r IMilmisir* assilard soisms.
inflismisi 1111.01.011111 ears Ilidensia. sloe
MOMS ismoor aresamml Os amerfsemeal
arnaimmemo e issme arn iseal esiare $1110fts
110014 NW MS Mb,
glime mist soismare Sam Ilmilmmis ft gloss
SIM 0111111.1 INS 411111161101 liamessa as ossowase
Oil Wale 410111111111111. also awns ass Isve awn
ellis MOP faillemihm swam Mem amst
OIMINNIF 4111910010 111110 sompasm ase illessisat
MOD Milliaila Saw bilimese.. appal *Mrs Os
41.111111111 OWN& 11116 ammed Ms wihres are spollei et We
MINIM lidammegra, asioural
Mae NI ON ems or aim wpm. st alp insidera
OM' OS alma. N pmelles armlass Is all

13
 13
etteramees distinctions in rank and status (Tanner 1967: Abas
19781 earrisea 19701 'Mahan 1900; Diah 1982).

Ceneerrent with this gertral acceptance, proficiency in

Massa taignesia is becoming increasingly widespread among the
tadomesiaa pepulatioa. MoliSble statistics are unavailable as to
the Members el indonosians who could speak Bahasa Indonesia
during the Ostch and Japanese oolonial eras or even at the time
01 Wonosiale independence. 'however, recent census data
tailgates that general proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia is
spreading very galokly. in the 1971 census, 40,250,000
andemesiane, or 80.70 of Indonesia's population,
reported that
they mad speak Bahasa Indonesia. By 1980, this total had
mashed 04er 00,000.000, or Olt of the population
(Nababan 1982;
10811).

the institution moot often credited tor this rapidly

ingrellaing proficiency in the national language is tha
OftentiaMal antes, particularly the compulsory six years of
slememtary easel whore the majority of Indonesians first learn
sad them see Bahasa Indonesia (Dish 19821 Douglas 1970; Tanner
1047). hostipmlated in the national language policy, 9hasa
Weasels Le the tedium et instruction in all types of schools
and at all levels of education throughout the country, with the
omeeptioe that regional languages say be used as the medium of
Lastrestion dosing the first three years of primary school while
Bahasa Indonesia Ls learned as a second language. moreover,
Oshaea Indonesia Ls also the major subject of instruction in the

14
 40. 14
primary schools, being taught six to eight hours weekly for all
six years, and is thereafter taught as a subject fkre hours per
week during the three years of junior high school and at least
three hours per week for the three years of senior high school
(hanenson 1979; Nababan 1982).
Besides providing access to proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia,
the schools are also mandated by Indonesia's language policy to
use the national language "as a means to strengthen and maintain
the feeling of nationalism and unity". For example, the language
arts curriculum in the secondary schools includes as writing
models the nationalist literature in Bahasa Indonesia from the
19301s, mentioned earlier (Diah 1982:29).
In addition to the schools, Indonesia's education system is
also increasing national proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia through
an extensive non-formal education literacy program, Despite the
fact that by 1980, eighty-five per cent of all elementary school

age children were enrolled in schools, due largely to financial

considerations (Beeby 1979), only fifty per cent of the pupils
who entered the first grade were reaching the fourth grade, and
only thirty-five per cent were completing all six years (Diah
1982). For these Indonesians who do not attend school long
enough to acquire literacy or proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia,

the national Department of Education and Culture has since 1951

provided a series of "functional literacy" programs as part of
its larger system of "non-formal education" -- "organized
learning opportunities outside the regular classroom" (Soedijarto

15
 15
et al. 1980:50).
A primary goal in these programs has been
proficiency and literacy in Bahasa Indonesia in order to write
letters and to read newspapers, magazines, and other publications
on a variety of practical topics (Lowenberg 1984; )apitupulu
1980).

A second major reason for the increasing use of Bahasa

Indonesia has been urbanization. Since independence, increasing
population pressure in rural regions has led to the tripling and
quadrupling of the populations of Indonesia's cities, bringing
together millions of Indonesians from different language
backgrounds in new neighborhoods, at work, and in the marketplace

(Peacock 1973). Attitudinally, the fact that Bahasa Indonesia

is
not the vernacular of any one prominent ethnic group has
encouraged its acceptance for interethnic communication by urban
Indonesians regardless of their first languages (Tanner 1967). An
East Java study of fluency in Bahasa Indonesia in the late 1970's
found that while fluency was still 30.8% in the villages, it had

reached 60.8% in the urban areas (Harrison 1979). In addition,

children of interethnic marriages, particularly in the 'urban
centers, often acquire Bahasa Indonesia as their first language.
Nababan (1985:3) reports that whereas at the time of Malay's
adoption as Bahasa Indonesia, at most 500,000 Indonesians spoke
it as a mother tongue, the 1980 census revealed over seventeen
million Indonesians "who can legitimately be called 'native
speakers',of Bahasa Indonesia."
The use of Bahasa Indonesia is also increasing in the domain

16
*?.
 16
of intraethnic communication among people sharing the same
regional language as their mother tongue. Most of the regional
languages of Indonesia, like Javanese mentioned above, require
for any speech act careful consideration of the relative status
of the participants and observers (See, for example, Glicken
1982, for a description of the Sundanese language of West Java).
In urban life, new social roles are created which may differ
radically from traditional status relationships in the villages.
As a result, participants in an urban speech act may stand in a
superior-subordinate relationship in terms of a traditional
hierarchy of ascribed status, such as nobility, but be social
equals in terms of a newer hierarchy of achieved status., such as
education and employment. Tanner (1967:24) notes that "in such
ambiguous situations individuals can avoid the difficulties and
embarrassment involved in either proclaiming their equality or
acknowledging their superiority or inferiority by communicating
with one another in Indonesian" (ie. Bahasa Indonesia).
A third factor responsible for increasing proficiency in and
use of Bahasa Indonesia has been the broadcast media. In

accordance with the national language policy, all radio and

television programming except that specifically promoting local
culture is transmitted in Bahasa Indonesia from regional
government stations to almost 20,000 .radios and 2,000,000
television receivers throughout the country (Douglas 1970; Europa
Yearhoo)ç, 2982; Vteeland et al. 1975).

As the foregoing discussion has demonstrated, Indonesia's

17
 17
often cited success in the selection, spread, and popular
acceptance of her national language has resulted from a complex
series of sociocultural, political, economic, and linguistic
developments spanning more than a millenium. In Indonesia, Malay
has evolved from a pre-colonial lingua franca, 'exhibiting
considerable regional variation and functioning in a relatively
restricted set of trade-relatad domains, into the primary shared
code of over 150 million people, with widespread status and
prestige, a high degree of elaboration and cultivation adequate
for use in virtually all linguistic domains of the modern world,
a well-developed body of literature, and sufficient neutrality
with regard to ethnicity and stylistic features to serVe as one
of the most popular national languages in the modern world.

Colonial Era: Malaya

The development and status of Malay in Malaysia and
Singapore has been considerably different from that in Indonesia,
due in large part to the policies of the British durinutheir
colonization of the Malay Peninsula and western Borneo
(present-day Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei) from the late eighteenth
until the mid-twentieth centuries. Permanent British presence in
the region effectively began with the establishment on the Malay
Peninsula of the "Straits Settlements" of Penang (1796),
Singapore (1819), and Malacca (1824) in order to support the
British East India Company's tea trade with China. This initial

,011.
18
 18
period of British influence, in contrast to the highly
restrictive immigration policy of the Dutch, noted above, was
marked by large-scale immigration of Hokkien-speaking Chinese to
the Straits Settlements, where they soon became the majority
populations of Penang and Singapore (Platt, Weber, and Ho 1983).
As will be seen, this concentration of Chinese in the coastal
cities profoundly affected the future political, economic, and
sociolinguistic development of the region.
In the 1870,s, the British began to expand their influence
more vigorously in the region until, by the end of the early
twentieth century, they administered with varying degrees of
direct control all of the Malay Peninsula and the crown colonies
of Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei on western Borneo (Vreeland et al.
1977a). Concurrent with this increasing British influence came
further large-scale immigration to the region of Chinese and
South Asians, the former to work in tin mines being opened in the
interior of the Malay Peninsula, and the latter to develop rubber

and coffee plantations and to construct a railroad (Hua 1983).

Thus, by the time of its first census in 1911, the colony of
Malaya had an extremely pluralistic society, including 1.5
million Malays, over 900,000 Chinese, and 267,000 Indians
(Vreeland et 'al. 1977a). The predominant languages spoken by
this diverse population included Malay; Hokkien, Teochew,
Cantonese, Bakke, and Hainanes. as the primary Chinese languages;
and Tamil as the most widely used South Asian language, in
addition to Malayalam, Telugu, and Punjabi (Platt and Weber

19
 19
1980).

Another major difference between the British and the Dutch

colonial policies was in the British provision of training in the

principal colonial language of power, English, for large numbers

of .the non-European population. Actually the initial British
policy with regard to access to the principal European language
of power was very similar to that of the Dutdh. Training in
English and English-medium education was provided only to heirs
of the royal and aristocratic Malay families to prepare them for

employment as minor officials in the colonial civil service and

the state governments (Vreeland et al. 2977a). Knowledge of
English was not made available to the masses since, as *explained
by one of the British residents (in Platt and Weber 1980:6),

I do not think it is advisable to attempt to give the

children of an agricultural population an indifferent
knowledge of a language that to all but the very few
would only unfit them for the duties of life and make
them discontent with anything like manual labour.

Furthermore, in accordance with a policy of "divide and rule,"

the British encouraged communal division of the non-Europeans
along ethnic lines and did not wish to supply them with common
proficiency, and thus potential power in colonial affairs, in
English (Hassan 1975). Instead, the British used Malay, already
well established as a lingua franca in the region, for some
official purposes, requiring colonial officers to be proficient
in Malay and, when necessary, cuploying interpreters,
particularly Indians, who spoke both English and Malay

20
 20
(Alisjahbana 1976; Vreeland et al. 1977a).

However, as the volume of their mercantile trade expanded,

in contrast to the more stable plantation economy of
the Dutch,
the British began to need a cadre of English-educated
non-
Europeans as an infrastructure of officials, business
agents, and
clerks. Bence, as early as the beginning
of the nineteenth
century, the colonial government established in the Straits
Settlements and in otY,: r urban centers English-medium
schools,
where English was taught and than used as the medium of
instruction and for other school activities. The students in
these sehools came from the more prosperous and prestigious
families from all ethnic groups, especially the Chinese and
Indians, whose parents wanted them prepared for entry into
government service, positions in trade and commerce, and the
professions (Platt, Weber, and Ho 1983). Malay-medium schools
were also established; however, due to insufficient
resources and
trained personnel, instruction w*s greatly inferior to that in
the English-medium sehor,?.s (hlisjahbana 1976). Most Secondary
sChools were conducted in English, as was instruction at Raffles
College and at the Singapore Medical College (Platt and Weber
1980; Vreeland it al. 1977a).

Largely as a result of these English-medium schools, the use

of English continually increased during the colonial era, almost

totally replacing Malay at all levels and in most domains of

government, including administration and the legal system,
domestic and international commerce, and transportation and

21
 21
communication (Platt and Weber 1980).
More significant for the status of Malay in contemporary
Malaysia and Singapore, English also became the language of power
and pre4tige among the urban non-European elites throughout the
colony, particular%y as the primary code for intetethnic
communication among the Chinese, Indian, and Malay elites who
attended the English-medium schools and then continued to use
English in a wide variety of domains as adults (Platt and Weber
1980; Vteeland et al. 1977a). By the end of the colonial era,
English had become "a lingua franca among the more educated
sections of the community" (Le Page 1962:133).
A final factor leading to the lesser status of Malay in
colonial Malaya than in colonial Indonesia was the Japanese
occupation. As in Indonesia, the Japanese initially attempted to
promote the Japanese language among the occupied population, only
to discover that the population could not learn the Japanese
language quickly enough to sustain the war effort. However,
whereas Malay had been sufficiently developed under the Dutch to
be adopted by the Japanese as an official language in Indonesia,
the emphasis on English in British Malaya had left Malay
linguistically unequipped for use in modern domains. Hence the
Japanese were forced to reinstate limited use of English, which
they had originally prohibited, or else "the administrative
structure of Malaya, which they had so hastily set up, would
simply collapse like a deck of cards" (Chin 1946:156; Cheah
1983).

In addition, while the Japanese supported the development of

,
22
 22
Bahasa /ndonesia as a step toward /ndonesian independence, they
never seriously consleared independence for Malaya, most of
which
they conridered economically and politically backward.
Instead,
the Japanese intended to rule the Straits Settlements directly,
with the remainder of Malaya administered from Singapore as a
protectorate (kkashi 1980; Elsbree 1953).
Thus perceiving no possibility of using Malay for-
communicationior need to develop it as the official language for
a future independent ally - - their motives for supporting Bahasa
/ndonesia -- the Japanese put little effort into the promotion of
Malay in Malaya. By the nd of the Japanese occupation, in
contril,b to the numerous fun.:itional domains for whiCh
Bahasa
/ndonesia had been modernized and standardized, the functions of
Malay in the former British territories were still extremely
restricted.

post-colonial Malaya

Nevertheless, in 1957, at the time of its independence from

the British (Who had regained colonial control after World War
/I), the yederation of Malan, consisting of the Malay Peninsula
xcept for Singapore, adopted not English but Malay as its sole
national language. Ostensibly, this selection resulted from two
considerations: (1) a desire to have an endoglossic langtwe, for
which Malay was the most widely used candidate, as a symbol of
and vehicle for national identity and integration; and (2) the
fact that when the British withdrew, only the ten per cent of the

23
 23
population who had comprised the non-European elites during the
colonial era could speak English (Hassan 1975; Le Page 1962).
However, an equally important and explicitly formulated goal
was to accord favored status to the Malays, the largest and
therefore potentially the most politically powerful etilnic group,
in their economic competition with the descendants of
the Chinese
and Indian immigrants. These non-Malays -- especially the
Chinese by virtue of their concentrations in the urban coastal
centers, where they had long been using English -- had during the
colonial period gained a significant economic advantage
over the
Malays (Le Page 1962; Vreeland et al. 1977a).

Nonethelesse the formulators of this language policy also

recognized the continued importance of English as the only
language in post-World War II Malaya that was linguistically
equipped for the myriad functions of a modern nation.
Hence, a
policy was devised for both Malay and English to have official
status until 1967, a ten-year transition period during which
Malay was to f.le taught intensively and modernized
so that it
could serve as the sole official language
and mediuM of
instruction in the schools (Platt and Weber 1980; Vteeland et al.
1977a). Two government agencies were established to help adhieve
this goal -- a Language Institute, to train
educators from all
ethnic groups to teach in Malay, and the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka
(the "Language and Literature Agency") to prepare Malay-language
textbooks and teaching materials, produce a standardized Malay
dictionary, coilz and adopt new words for the lexical

24
 24

modernization of Malay, and promote the use of Malay among the

general population (Le Page 1962).

However, beyond establising these agencies, the government

took few firm steps to implement this goal, relying instead on
"persuasion" to have Malay replace English over the
allotted ten
years (Hassan 1975:3). As a result, there occurred a "linguistic
drift toward English," which provided "the main
avenues to higher
education and economic advancement" (Le Page 1962:142).
Prestigious scholarships to universities and training institutes
in the British Commonwealth and in the United States were
available exclusively to candidates with a high proficiency in
English. Similarly, only those who could functionally use
English were eligible for the best
employment, both within and
outside Government service (Le Page 1964).

Not surprisingly, the majority of Malayan students continued

to be enrolled in English-medium schools. In fact, the
percentage of the total enrollment from all ethnic groups in
government subsidized secondary schools who chose
English as the
medium of instruction increased from 61.0% in 1956 to 84.4% in
1964 (Platt and Weber 1980). Even among
the ethnic Malays, Le
Page observed in the early 1960's (1962:141),

fairly keen competition, among those Malay parents

are ambitious for their children, to get who
them into
English-medium schools, and indeed the Malay elite are
still educated at schools such as Malay College where
the teaching is wholly in English.

25
 25

Contemporary Malaysia -

What ultimately catalyzed more vigorous implementation of

the language policy was a dramatic rise in ethnic communalism
that developed in the region during the 1960's. A major source
of tension, discussed in detail below, was Singapore's political
unification with the Federation of Malaya, Sabah, and Sarawak in
an expanded nation of Malaysia, followed only two
years later by
Singapore's secession from the new polity. In addition,
developments on the Malay Peninsula -- including an economy
greatly weakened by declining rubber prices and discontent
among
the Malay elites at the slow pace with which
their economic
condition was improving relative to that of the Chinese
Malaysians -- further threatened the stability of the ethnic
concord essential to Malaysia's survival, culminating in serious
Malay-Chinese riots in the late 1960's (Hua 1983;
Vreeland et al.
1977b).

In an effort to appease the Malay plurality in the

population and to diffuse ethnic tensions by
promoting Malaysian
identity, the Malaysian government
in the second half of the
1960's began to take more determined steps to
strengthen the
position of Malay, which it renamed
a more ethnically neutral
Bahasa Malaysia (literally, the "Malaysian
Language"). In 1967,
a revised-National Language Act specified
Bahasa Malaysia as the
only language for most official documents
and publications, and
as the primary language for use in Parliament
and the courts;
furthermore, it required passing a proficiency
test in Bahasa
Malaysia for promotion in government service. In 1969, the

26
5
 27
meth*, Sore than an attempt on the part of its native
to assert their superiority and heighten
Ilevatramd oeppetition by placing the other groups in
the esustry at a disadvantage.

Per esampie, Sabah and Sarawak, the provinces of

Last Malaysia on
the island et armee, whit* joined Malaysia with Singapore
in
19413, have both been hesitant to switch totally from English to
Bahasa Malaysia, a reluctance at least partially due to a fear of
Maley animation ever their largely non-Milay populations (Le
Pogo iStSt Ileselami et al. 1977a).
2n addition, there is evidence that this language policy may
met eves be beneficial to the majority of the ethnic Malays.
The
emerging standard variety of Bahasa Malaysia, used in the
national 'overseen!, the mass media, and textbooks in the
seheele, is basically that of the ethnic Malay elites living in
the capital, Seals Lumpur, and the other population center of
southern Malaysia, Zahore Nehru (Le Page 1985). In contrast,
elese to mimety per cent of the Malays live in rural areas and
speak suck regional varieties of Malay as Raab Malay, Relantan
Malay, and Sarawak Malay, many of whica differ radically in'their

linguistic !eaterss from the standard (Rogers 1982).

!hese differences are augmented by considerable transfer of

features at all linguistic levels, from morphology and syntax to
disseuree and style, Wilds have entered standard Bahasa Malaysia
through contact with Chinese, Tamil, Bahasa Indonesia, and
sepaolally Ingliab via the usage of the urban Malay elites (Asmah
19SS, Le Pegs MS). A combination of interference from non-

28
 28
standard varieties of Malay, inadequately trained
teachers, and a
dearth of teaching materials in the rural schools
has resulted in
rural Malay students generally experiencing
more difficulty in
watering standard Bahasa Malaysia than do the urban non-Malay
native speakers of other languages "who study Bahasa Malaysia
as
an object in the classroom" (Le Page 1985:35).
In addition,
contrary to the non-formal education programs,
discussed earlier,
which are bringing both literacy and
proficiency in Bahasa
Indonesia to the rural population of Indonesia, de Terra
(1983:536) claims that no such literacy campaigns are being
pursued in Malaysia, and that "Bahasa Malaysia is not available
to all."

This situation has caused some observers to question the

basic intent of Malaysia's national
language policy. For
example, de Terre (1983:531) concludes that the selection
and
cultivation of Bahasa Malaysia as the sole national
and official
language has resulted largely from the pursuit of class interests

by the urban Malay elites rather than a means to achieve ethnic

equality and promote national unity and integration:

the language chosen to erase the identification of one

ethnic group (the Chinese) with economic and/or
academic advantage is the language of another ethnic
group (the Malays). Within that other ethnic group, it
is the language of one class that makes
use of
ethnicity to further its own class interests.
(my parentheses]

The test of this conclusion regarding the role of

Bahasa Malaysia
as.a national language will be the degree and speed with which

29
 29
the rural Malays and other ethnic minorities can gain access to
literacy and proficiency in the prestige variety of Bahasa
Malaysia variety and thereby begin to share in the economic
benefits of Malaysia's development.

Singapore

The selection and retention of Malay as the national

language of Singapore has been less controversial than in
Malaysia and less consequential than in either Malaysia or
Indonesia. Whereas the status of Malay in Malaysia and Indonesia
has resulted from a number of intranational factors,
Singapore's
selection of Malay was originally and still is motivated by
largely international socioeconomic and political concerns.
Singapore was first granted a degree of self-government in
1959; hoWever, out of concern for their economic and political
security following the eventual complete withdrawal
of the
British, Singapore'd leaders had begun proposing unification with
the Federation of Malaya as early as 1957, the year in which the
Federation became independent. Malaya was initially reluctant to
merge with Singapore due to the latter's Chinese population at
the time of 1.1 million, a legacy of the previously discussed
immigration patterns of the Chinese during the colonial era.
These Singaporean Chinese, if added to Malaya's 2.3 million
Chinese, would cause a new, combined state to have a larger
Chinese than Malay population (Vreeland et al. 1977b).

30
 30
In order to convince. Malaya that unification would not
present a threat to the Federation's already fragile interethnic
stability, Singapore in 1959 adopted Malay as its single national
language and the primary medium of instruction in its schools.
That this policy was motivated by the desire for unification with
Malaya is indicated by an official language policy statement at
the time which argued that granting this status to Malay "will
help us to croas the Straits of ;chore iseparating Malaya and
Singapore] into the Federation" (cited in Gopinathan 1974:34).
This policy was by no means empty rhetoric. For the next
five years, Singapore did more than Malaya to promote the status
of Malay, including (Gopinathan 1974)

the provision of a subsidy to the Adult Education Board

to conduct Malay language classes, the making of the
study of the national language compulsory in the
schools, (and) the requirement that confirmation in
posts of the Civil Service was dependent on civil
servants passing the government's national language
examination (p. 40) Special courses were run to
meet the demand this made on teachers, and in order to
encourage the development of the language itself the
government established the National Language and
Culture Institute (p. 34)

A year earlier, an official "special policy" had already

been adopted toward the Malays, "motivated both by a desire to
alleviate backwardness and to improve by a pro-Malay policy the
chances of merger of Singapore with Malaya" (Gopinathan 1974:40).
This policy was made explicit in a 1958 "Constitution-Order in
Council" that it would be "the deliberate and conscious policy of

government to recognize the special position of the Malays, who

31
 - 31
are the indigenous people of the island and most in need of
assistance" (cited in Buss 1958:54). Toward this end, Malay
students were offered free primary, secondary, and university
education; additional scholarships and other financial support;
free textbooks; and special transportation allowances (Gopinathan
1974).
These policies regarding the Malay language and its native
speakers appiar to have enhanced Malaya's confidence that
political merger with Singapore could succeed. In addition,
concern over a strong left-wing political movement in Singapore
that had been steadily growing since the mid-1960's further
motivated the Malayans to unite with Singapore in order to avoid
ultimately having a Communist Chinese city-state as a neighbor.
Therefore, in September, 1963, as noted above, the expanded
nation of Malaysia was formed by a merger of the Federation of
Malaya, Singapore, and the crown colonies of Sabah and Sarawak,
the latter being included in part for their largely non-Chinese
populations, which ensured that the majority of the Malaysian
population would still be peoples indigenous to the region
(Vreeland et al. 2977a).

However, Singapore's participation in this union was short-

lived for a number of political reasons. One major ideological
difference between the former Federation and Singapore stemmed
from the latter's refusal to formulate a plan to make Malay its
sole official language, which, as discussed earlier, the
Federation had already done at its inception. A critical domain

32
 32
of this policy division was the educational system, in which
Singapore declared no intention of converting to a system of all
Malay-medium schools from its four "streams" of schools, each
with a different primary language of instruction -- English as
the colonial legacy, and Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil as options
for the major ethnic groups (Gopinathan 1974). Another source of
conflict was dissatisfaction among a large sector of Singapore's

population concerning their deliberate under-representation in

the lower house of the Malaysian Parliament, a condition which
the Federation of Malaya had demanded in order to maintain the
delicate balance of power. between Malays and Chinese. These
differences quickly exacerbated tensions throughout the Malay
Peninsula, leading to ethnic riots in Singapore in 1964, and
culminating in Singapore's withdrawal from Malaysia as an
independent nation in August, 1965 (Gopinathan 1974; Vreeland et
al. 1977b).

Despite these interethnic conflicts, at the time of its

secession from Malaysia, Singapore's leaders elected to retain
Malay as the sole national language. In so doing, their motives,
as in their original adoption of Malay, were again largely
international, particularly to promote cooperation and good will
with Singapore's Malay-speaking neighbors, Indonesia and
Malaysia. Had intranational concerns been of primary importance,
other languages would have been more logical candidates. Given
an over seventy-five per cent Chinese population speaking a large
range of Chinese languages, Mandarin as a neutral, pan-Chinese

33
 a. 33
tongue would have been one possible choice. However, the
continued presence of highly vocal left-wing political parties
was already a matter of considerable concern among the vehemently

anti-communist governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, a distrust

which might have been aggravated by giving national stittus to the

dominant language of the People's Republic of China. Another

possibility for the national language was English as the
predominant interethnic link language of Singapore's colonial
period. However, selection of English could likewise have been
construed by Singapore's neighbors as reflecting identity of
interests with foreign powers. Thus, largely as an expression of
solidarity with Indonesia and Malaysia - - with whom Singipore has
subsequently entered the Association of Southeast Nations
(ASEAN), as well as joined forces in several bi- and trilateral
project's -- Singapore has maintained Malay aP its sole national

language (fto 1977).

Nevertheless, since independence, the status that Singapore

has accorded to Malay has never approximated either its
association with the ethnic Malays or its functional significance
prior to Singapore's joining and seceding from Malaysia.
National policies have consistently 'NMI formulated without
particular attention to the interests of the ethnic Malays
(Gopinathan 1974: Vteeland et al. 1977b). Similarly, the domains
reserved solely for Malay as the national language have been
greatly diminished to largely ceremonial functions: the national
coat of arms, the National Anthem, military commands, and

34
 34
protocol rituals at official functions (Xuo 1977; Laamzon 197e).
In all other domains controlled in any way by the
government,
including the education system,. Malay shares status
as an
official language with Mandarin, Tamil, and English.
The intent
of this multilingual policy, as it already
was in the school
system before independence, has been to promote
the three non-
European languages in order to maintain ethnic identity and
cultural diversity, while using English in the domains of
administration and law, in interethnic communication, and in
international commerce in the worldls fourth busiest seaport
(Vreeland et al. 1977b).

Since the promulgation of this policy, the

most noteworthy
development in language status in Singapore has been not this
diminished importance of Malay, but a largely
unforeseen increase
in the use of English. Initially intended to function in a
largely auxiliary capacity, English is rapidly becoming
the most
widely used language in several linguistic domains. In the
domain of employment, much intra -governmental
communication and
correspondence is conducted in English (Platt and Weber 1980);
English is the only language used in interviews
for government
positions and is crucial for advancements in
employment with the
Singapore civil service (Tay 1982). In the private sector,
both
large and small businesses are increasingly using English
as one
or the only language of intra-office communication, particularly
at management levels (Platt and Weber 1980). With the exception
of some Chinese firms, job interviews are conducted in English,

35
 35
a.
and once hired, employees' competence in English is an important
criterion in their promotion (Tay 1982). In addition, English-
educated employees consistently earn higher monthly incomes than
do employees of the same age and level of education who have been

educated in other languages of instruction (Xuo 1977).-

In the Singapore school system, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and

English continue to share equal status as official languages of
instruction, in that parents can choose to send their children to
Chinese-, Malay-, Tamil-, or English-medium primary and secondary
schools. However, awing to the importance of Englirb in the
domain of employment, the percentage of primary and secondary
students, from all ethnic groups, enrolled in English-medium
schools increased consistently from 31.6 per cent in 1947 to 71.3
per cent in 1976 (Platt and Weber 1980). This trend has
accelerated since developments in 1975 made university education
in Singapore available only in English; by 1980, 84.5 per cent of

elementary school pupils were being taught in English (Le Page

1984).

This increasing enrollment in English-medium schools has

occurred despite frequent pleas hy government leaders for parents
to enroll their children in other language medium schools,
appeals motivated by a concern that Singapore's rich linguistic
and cultural heritage may be erased by the dominance of English.

Howw:ar, as Singapore's bilingual education policy allows all

children to use the mother tongue of their ethnic background as
a second medium of instruction for selected
subjects, Kuo

36
 36
(1977:22) observes that the option of sending their-children to
English-medium schools "becomes easier for the parents because
they can now send their children to English schools for economic
advancement without any guilty feeling of betraying their ethnic
tradition."
A related consequence of this increasing use of English in
the schools and on the job has been a rise in the use of English
in informal conversation. During the colonial era, as discussed
above, English had already become an important code for
interethnic communication, especially among the educated sector
of the population. Amore dramatic development since Singapore's
independence has been the widespread use of English for
intraethnic conversation among all ethnic groups. In these
cases, English is often mixed and switched with other languages
when speakers wish to signal their status, education, or a change
in register (cf. Lowenberg 1985; Platt and Weber 1980; Richards
1982).

The increasing use of English in Singapore is also reflected

in other domains, including rising circulations in English-
language newspapers and magazines and growing percentages of
English-language programming and advertising on radio and
television (Platt and Weber 1980). These trends, together with
the patterns of English use just described, have led some
observers, such as Llamzon (1978:92), to argue that English is
rapidly becoming not only the most widely used of Singapore's

37
 37
official languages, but also the replacement of Malay as
Singapore's de facto national language.

Nevertheless, a great many Singaporeans continue to be

proficient in and use Malay. Kuo (1980) reports statistics that
among all Singaporeans who were fifteen years or older in 1978,
Malay was the major Singapore language in which the largest
percentage (6/.3) claimed to be competent, followed by English
(61.7 per cent) and Mandarin (63.9 per cent). This higher
competence in Malay than in the other official languages was
found to occur among Malays, South Asians, and Chinese.
Of the individual ethnic groups, 99.8 per cent of the Malays
claimed competence in Malay -- the highest mother-tongue
retention rate in Singapore (Kuo 1978a). Subsequent data from
the 1980 census indicated that 97.7 per cent of all Malays five
years of age or older used Malay as the principal language of the
home (Tay 1965a). These high rates of retention and use of Malay
by the Malays have been attributed to their being Singapore's
most homogeneous group, both linguistically and ethnically (Tay
1985a), and to their indigeneous status in the region, making
them the "host culture" and less likely to assimilate with the
groups whose ancestors immigrated during the colonial era (Kuo
1978a:87).

Malay is also frequently used by many South Asians, of whom

97.4 per cent claimed competence in Malay in
1978 (Kuo 1980).
Within this group, the 1980 census indicated that 9.3 per cent
use Malay as the primary language of the home (Anderson 1985),
a

38
 38
percentage which may be considerably higher among the 36 per cent

of the South Asians whose mother tongue is not Tamil.

With regard to the future, recent studies predict the
continued use of Malay in Singapore. Data from the 1980 census
indicate retention of Malay by the Malays and by those South
Asians for whom it is the principal language of.the home.
Anderson (1985:93) finds "a very strong pattern of maintenance"
across the current three generations living in most Malay
families. In fact, Tay (1985a) reports much higher use of Malay
as the primary language of the household among younger (ages 5 to
24 years) than older (over 24 years) Singaporeans, and a tendency
(81.9 per cent) to listen to Malay-language radio programs among

Singaporeans for whom Malay is the primary home language. She

concludes (Tay 1985a:16) that

of all the languages and dialects in Singapore, Malay

appears to be the one language that will continue to be
used as the principal home language by those who
(currently) use it... It is unlikely to be superseded
by another language, such as English (parentheses mine)

Another factor that Tay. (1985b) suggests may contribute to

the continued acquisition and use of Malay by Singaporeans iS the
increasing employment, as Singapore's standard of living
improves, of Malay and Indonesian women as caretakers in child-
care centers and as live-in "amahs" (baby-sitters) or maids in
Singapore households of all ethnic groups. Tay posits (1985b:8)
that the caretaker language spoken by these women "will influence

39
 39
a person's use of language in childhood much more than the
traditionally defined mother tongue."

Beyond the domain of the home, a study by Lim (1980:26)

revealed that in Singapore's bilingual education policy, in
which, as noted earlier, students select their second language of

instruction, "Malay is the most popular second language in that

there were Chinese, Indians, and other races learning it rather
than their own native language in school."

Evidently, the language situation in Singapore is still very

much in flux. Although the over-all dominance
of English in
employment and education appears likely to continue in the
foreseeable future, there are several indications that Malay is
far from dying, and will likewise continue to retain
considerable
status in a number of domains.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, Malay's long use as the dominant lingua franca

throughout present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore is at
least partly responsible for its current status as the national
language of all three of these countries. But equally
significant have been political and economic developments
during
and subsequent to the colonial era, developments that have
created sociolinguistic contexts in which the motives
for and the
results of Malay's obtaining this status have diverged
considerably.

40
 40
IP Mir Sae asoupless ape so se *Ow itaiinests as
011 friktinta. assed ages1 W awilismi itlaralfer asl boesgratiaa
Sol Om Is SISSioltill le le Ills am et nattlitipal
essiles MIMS Ow IlasiqpES, Isesver, Mow ast aft
Us Oslo alt Us lallusifts astansillels Os tint 9114111014
.11.30. Mao 110 ake Os largarge 'Wake el Us
OM MI ammo irk selevals 1.1111111181 assour et maim
avalsompoll Illssii et IMIss Soilausle asaribs
sullipesp IS Is awe as as Welloial aaarsp la
awn Olt ND 1111111101 SUM&
11111114MS, missillse aid poossallas et Sam 111apda
GO Sallsse Isagerp loss astevells at lasso Os pan
MN* Sumailles Urns eallissi mash stOustisa INA
gssollp usgerri as Ur asibmal Saarsags. "at
11111141111e delillegslis lausiss be sterlims at isms
0011641, Olio Us Iftligmbe ad fresupi petioles et 1.0 Oritis
ON US 81111211m, INNSIOS1011, eissas, ISM Mee loft
11116.11. OS So NM, widaisms alma Os am alas Old
NNW* IMMO so ISOM Whim Ike appeadas.
a Woe 11111.pm, Mg as magma Lapses
iggsus Om MUD ammessiss eft halmatisal idloseltre
SIS Wait mon aims OlImpeme besireseimal
Ilmempois loft NM Mir Ow assist argOisms, iii
eilsosar esiallopra 1114140.4 et esurne as e
Oneemlis isliallihs wit Ibellish, auss ausia a levy
pastliS6 sweskeir lb, Illioses Us Milo salsaial

41
 41
policies. Concurrently, the comfortable demographic superiority
that the Chinese enjoy, which likewise results from British
immigration policies, protects Malay from being perceived as the
vested interest et an ethnic rival, with the result that Malay
egotism' to flourish in interpersonal domains.
Meanwhile, the status of and domains served by the languages
of these three multilingual countries are
far from static. In
2ndemesia. Maley was originally selected in part to offset the
traditional dominance of the Javanese. However, since
independenos, as positions of power have tended
to be occupied by
the Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia has
been altered by substantial
transfer from Javanese at all linguistic levels, occasionally
misvalue comers among other ethnic groups that the neutrality
et the national language is being eroded (Abas
1978; Stevens
1973). Concurrently, Malaysia has found that its long dependence
es !English, both domestically and
internationally, cannot be
eradinated as easily as had been hoped in the late
1960's, and a
essnerted push to upgrade awash in recent years (Le Page 1984;
apfeell Ma) may dilute the linguistiu hegemony that Bahasa
Malgras has adored for the past decade. In Singapore, the
geverosent for several years has been attempting
to promote the
use of Mandarin among the Chinese, partly in an effort
to balance
the dominance of Mynah (Le Page 1984). To the degree that this
sampaign is effective, official interest in Malay may revive as
well. Mao (1978b) reports that the Singapore government has been

eolosidaring participation in on-going joint Malaysian-Indonesian

42
 42
language planning activities toward the standardization and
modernization of Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia.

In sum, as elsewhere in the world, the contexts of language

use in the Malay Archipelago are constantly evolving and
changing. As they do, the status and functions of Malay in the
region will likewise continue to shift with other linguiitic and
non-linguistic developments and thereby shed further light on the

many complexities of the national language question.

-4 3
 REFERENCES

Aanenson, C. R. 1979. Indonesia. Washington, DC:

American Association
of College Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Abas, Hunan. 1978. Bahasa Indonesia as a unifying language of wider
communication: a historical and sociolinguistic perspective.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ateneo de Manila
University-Philippine Normal College Consortium, Manila.
Akashi, Yoji. 1980. The Japanese occupation of Malaya:
or transformation? In McCoy (ed.), pp. 65-89. interruption

Alisjahbana, S. Takdir. 1976. Language planning and modernization:

the case of Indonesian and Malaysian. The Hague: Mouton.

Anderson, Benedict R. 1966. The languages of Indonesian politics.

Indonesia 1(1):89-106.
Asmah, Haji Omar. 1982. Language spread and recession
in Malaysia
.and the Malay Archipelago. In Robert L. Cooper (ed.),
Spread: studies in diffusion and social change. Language
Bloomington:
Indiana University Press. pp. 198-213.
Beeby, C. E. 1979. Assessment of Indonesian
education: a guide in
planning. Wellington, New Zealand:
Oxford University Press.
'Buss, Claude. 1958. Southeast Asia and the world
today. Princeton:
Princeton: D. Van Nostrand.
Cady, John P. 1964. Southeast Asia: its historical development.
York: McGraw Hill. New

Central Bureau of Statistics, Department of Economic Affairs.

1940.
Pocket edition of the statistical abstract of the
1940. Batavia: Netherlands Information Bureau. Netherlands Indies,

Cheah Boon !Chang. 1983. Red star over Malaya: resistance and social
conflict during and after the Japanese occupation of
Singapore: University of Singapore Press. Malaya, 1941-46.

Chin Kee Onn. 1946. Malaya*upside down. Singapore: Jitts and Company.
de Terra, Diane. 1983. The linguagenesis of
society: the implementation
of the national language plan in West Malaysia.
In Bruce Bain (ed.),
The sociogenesis of language and human contact. New
Press. pp. 527-540. York: Plenum

Diah, M. 1982. National language policy

and the writing curriculum in
Indonesia: a case study. Urbana: Curriculum Laboratory,
University of Illinois.

44
 Douglas, Stephen A. 1970. Political socialization and student activism
in Indonesia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Dyen, Isadore. 1971. The Austronesian languages and
Proto-Austronesian. In Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Current trends in
linguistics. V01. 8, Part 1. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 5-54.

Elsbree, Willard H. 1953. Japan's role in Southeast Asian nationalist

movements, 1940 to 1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Europa yearbook, 1982. Vol. 2. London: Europa Publications, Ltd.

Geertz, Clifford. 1960. The religion of Java. Glencoe, IL: The
Free Press.

Glicken, Jessica. 1982. Sundanese Islam and the value of

hormat: control, obedience, and social location in West Java.
Paper presented at Indonesian Summer Studies Institute Conference,
12-15 August, 1982, Athens, Ohio.
Gonda, J. 1973. Sanskrit in Indonesia. New Delhi: International
Academy of Indian Culture.

Gopinathan, Saravanan. 1974. Towards a national system of education

in Singapore, 1945-1973. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Harriion, Brian. 1967. South-east Asia: a short history (third

o edition). New York: St. Martin's Press.

Harrison, Selig S. 1979. Why they won't speak our language in Asia.
Asia 1(6):3-7.
Hassan, Abdullah. 1975. The standardization and promotion of Bahasa
Malaysia. Paper given at Regional English Language Centre
Conference, January, 1975, Bangkok, Thailand.
Hoffman, J. E. 1973. The Malay Language as a force for unity in the
Indonesian Archipelago, 1815-1900. Nusantara, No. 4, pp. 19-36.
Hua Wu Yin. 1983._ Class and communalism in Malaysia.
. . London: Marram
Books.

Kuo, Eddie C. Y. 1977. The status of English in Singapore: a

sociolinguistic analysis. In William Crewe (ed.), The English
Language in Singapore. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
pp. 10-33.

Kuo, Eddie C. Y. 1978b. Language planning in Singapore. Language

Planning Newsletter 6(2):1-5.
Le Page, Robert B. '1962. Multilingualism in Malaya. In Symposium on
multilingualism [second meeting of the Inter-African Committee on
Linguistics, 16-21 July, 1962, Brazzaville]. London: Committee for
Technical Cooperation in Africa.
 Le Page, Robert B. 1984. Retrospect and prognosis in
Malaysia and
Singapore. International Journal of the Sociology of Language
45:213-126.
Le Page, Robert B. 1985. The language standardisation
Malaysia set in context. Southeast Asian Journal ofproblems of
13(1):29-39. Social Science

Llamzon, Teodoro A. 1978. English and the national

languages in
Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines: a sociolinguistic
comparison. Cross Currents 5(1):87-104.

Lowenberg, Peter H. 1984. Literacy in Indonesia.

In Robert. B. Kaplan
(ed.), Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 1983. pp. 124-140.
Rowley, MA: Newbury Rouse.

Lowenberg, Peter H. 1985. Nativization and function in ESL: A

TESL Studies 6:88-107. case study.

McCoy, Alfred W. (ed.). 1980. Southeast Asia under Japanese

New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies. occupation.
Series no. 223 [Monograph

Nababan, P. W. J. 1979. Languages of Indonesia.

In Teodoro A. Llamzon
(ed.), Papers on Southeast Asian languages. Singapore:
Regional Language Centre. ,pp. 259-291. SEAMS°

Nababan, P. W. J. 1980. Proficiency profiles:

a study in bilingualism
and bilinguality in Indonesia. In Lim Kiat Boey (ed.), Bilingual
education. Singapore: SEAMED Regional Language
Centre. pp. 209-221.

Nababan, P. V. J. 1982. Indonesia. In Noss (ed.), pp. 1-47.

Nababan, P. W. J. 1985. Bilingualism in Indonesia:
ethnic language
maintenance and the swead of the national language.
Journal of Social Science 13(1):1-18. Southeast Asian

Napitupulu, W. P. 1980. Illiteracy eradication

(The Learning Package A Kejar Programme). programme in Indonesia
workshop on Planning and Administration of Paper presented at
National Literacy
Programmes, Arusha, Tanzania, 27 November - 2 December.
Noss, RI.chard B. (ed.) 1982. Language teaching issues
environments in Southeast Asia. Singapore: in multilingual
Centre. SEAMEO Regional Language
[RELC Anthology Series no. 10]
Peacock, James L. 1973. Indonesia:
an anthropological perspective.
Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing
Company.
Platt, John and Heidi Weber. 1980. English in Singapore
New York: Oxford University Press. and Malaysia.

46
 Platt, John, Heidi Weber, and Mian Lien Ho. 1983. Singapore and
Malaysia. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
(. series Varieties of English around the World] [Vol. 4 in

Reid, Anthony. 1980. Indonesia: from briefcase

to samurai sword. In
McCoy (ed.). Pp. 17-32.
Richards, Jack C. 1982. Singapore English:
rhetorical and
communicative styles. In Bras B. Kachru (ed.), The other tongue.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 154-167.

Rogers, Anthony J. 1982. Malaysia. In Noss (ed.), pp. 48-77.

Soedijarto, et al. 1980. Indonesia. In T. N. Postlethwaite and
R. M. Thomas (eds.), Schooling in the ASEAN region.
Oxford:
Pergamon Press. .pp. 48-96.
Stevens, Alan M. 1973. Bihasa Indonesia:
modernization and
nationalization. Asia (1973), pp. 70-84.
Tanner, Nancy. 1967. Speech and society among the Indonesian elite,
case study of a multilingual community. a
9(3):15-40. Anthropological Linguistics

Tay, Mary W. J. 1982. The uses, users, and features

Singapore. In John Pride (ed.), New Englishes. of English in
House. pp. 51-70. Rowley, MA: Newbury

()Tay, Mary W. J. 1985a. Ttends in language, literacy

Singapore. Singapore: Department of Statistics. and education in
no. 2] [Census Monograph

Teeuw, A. 1967. Modern Indonesian literature. The Hague: Martinus

Nijhoff.
Voegelin, C. F. and F. M. Voegelin. 1964. Languages of the
world: Indo-Pacific fascicle four.
7(2):2-297. Anthropological Linguistics

Vteeland, Nena, et. al. 1975. Area handbook for Indonesia (third
edition). Washington, DC: The American University.
Vreeland, Nona, et. al. 1977a. Area handbook for Malaysia
edition). Washington, DC: The American University. (third

Vteeland, Nena, et. al. 1977b. Area handbook for Singapore.

Washington, EC: The American University.
Williams, Lea E. 1976. Southeast Asia: a history.
University Press. New York: Oxford

47
 Additional References

Anderson, Edmund A. 1985. Sociolinguistic surveys in Singapore.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language 55:89-114.
Kuo, Eddie C. Y. 1978a. Population ratio, intermarriage and mother
tongue retention. Anthropological Linguistics 20(2) :85-93.

Km, Eddie C. Y. 1980. The sociolinguistic situation in Singapore:

unity in diversity. In E. A. Afendras and Eddie C. Y. Kuo (eds.)
Language and society in Singapore. Singapore: University of
Singapore Press. pp. 39-62.
Tay, Mary W. J. 1985b. Patterns of bilingualism in
Singapore:
language, function, and use. Manuscript. Department of English,
University of Singapore.